


Duryodhan and Subhadra Are A Hit (SHUT Up Nakul)

by annsgopal94



Category: Mahabharata - Vyasa, महाभारत | Mahabharat (TV 2013)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-09-07
Updated: 2014-09-07
Packaged: 2018-02-16 12:55:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,208
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2270541
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/annsgopal94/pseuds/annsgopal94
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind,<br/>And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.” <br/>― William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream</p>
            </blockquote>





	Duryodhan and Subhadra Are A Hit (SHUT Up Nakul)

Duryodhan is too hard to understand, Subhadra thinks. Look at him, there, in that silly apron making puchkas for me.

Who makes puchkas wearing an apron? That’s just so crack.

——-

Sometimes, Duryodhan likes to sleep next to Subhadra’s toes. They’re very pretty toes. And she wears the prettiest colours on her toe nails. You’re perfect he whispers to them.

And they’re pretty far away from her snoring face.

——-

Subhadra will never forget the time Duryodhan held her still in a teeming crowd in Janpath.

“I don’t want you to be with Arjun.”

“EWWWW. He’s my first cousin! EW. GROSS. YOU SICK FREAK! How could you EVEN think that?!”

“I want us to be together.”

“Okay, but did that really have to have such a disturbing prelude?!”

Duryodhan had smirked in a funny way.

“I had to get your attention.”

“Bhaisaab, jagah do.”

“You don’t need to shock my brain like that,” she had smiled.

——-

Duryodhan and Subhadra like old songs. One evening, when the clouds had burst, scattering bright bolts of thunder everywhere, Subhadra had come home. Yudhishtir had opened the door to find her wet to the bone, like the girl in Les Miserable.

She had pushed him aside and walked in sniffing and sobbing.

She had walked into the lounge where a roomful of Kurus were watching Saturday Nights with Kapil.

She had scanned the room in minute and then deduced that Duryodhan wasn’t there. She didn’t even stop to answer Phoophaji, who had asked in his kindest tone, “Maths mein fail ho gayi kya beta?”

She had opened Duryodhan’s door and walked into the darkness, directly to his window seat, where Shehzaade saab sat, tracing circles on his tea mug while the rain created little explosions of smell and colour when it hit the mud.

Lag ja gale ke phir ye haseen raat ho na ho…

She had immediately climbed onto the seat, him and all and settled into his chest.

Hum ko mili hai aaj ye ghadiyan naseeb se…

A pair of arms had enclosed her tightly, uncaring of her sopping wet clothes.

And they had sat there like that, falling asleep to Vividh Bharati’s night time programme.

———

Sometimes Duryodhan is hit by the strangest nostalgia when in bed with Subhadra.

For instance he was busy kissing her neck one night when he thought of the time she wore that incredibly sexy nath. And he promptly kissed her nose.

And that time when she had been painting her room and her legs were splattered with paint…

Red…

Blue…

Blue…

———-

Duryodhan is very worried that he will be washed away in the memories of time.

Karna will become a partner in a law firm, Yudhishtir will become the best statesman, and Bheem will become a world class wrestler and so on.

What will he be?

Who was he?

Disturbing thoughts such as these fly in and out as he considers various policies for equitable, sustainable development in agro farming.

Sometimes he asks Subhadra who she thinks he is.

Subhadra can never be sure and that is what she tells him.

“You surprise me every minute… but I know that anything you do will be enormous. Whether it is positive or negative.”

Duryodhan is alarmed that she thinks he is capable of something negative. He is especially worried because he knows that Subhadra is intelligent and knows him very well.

Subhadra senses this and runs her finger tips across his frown.

“You just need to make your choice you know…but when you do, know that the good in you deserves a chance to manifest itself in its entirety.”

Duryodhan is hesitant. He still feels that he is a ticking bomb, biding his time.

But times are different: Shakuni is far away, Karna is his positive strength, Draupadi is not a rude little shite, and Subhadra is with him and not Arjun.

Most of all, Duryodhan’s paranoia has rendered his conscience to be as strong as a diamond.

It’s very unlikely that he might mess up and cause a Kurukshetra to arise.

————

Subhadra loves, loves, loves that Duryodhan can cook.

Especially as she cannot.

She is an over enthu cutlet though, so one day she decided to make some chai for him in celebration of his having spent an entire day with Rukmi and restrained his arm from flying out and punching him in the face.

She had put in six tablespoons of Red Label into the water because he said he liked it strong. And then she put in a three inch section of ginger. And then added a cup of milk.

She had sieved the whole concoction, mixed what she called tea with three heaps full of sugar and had handed it to him proudly.

He had grinned fondly at her, in her tiny little shorts and messy braid.

He kept grinning and did not notice the maroon of the tea.

Then he sipped it and all hell broke loose.

He had had to extract a tearful promise from Subhadra to never, ever dismiss the thought of a cook again.

———

Gandhari loves Krishna and Balram, but she isn’t too keen on Subhadra. She feels that Subhadra is a bit too flighty for her family and that she’s slowly and steadily stealing her son away.

What about Bhanumati, she keeps asking her son. So quiet, sanskaari, sehmi hui, suljhi hui…haye. What a wonderful rishta!

Flamboyant, sassy, savvy, intelligent Duryodhan and quiet, obedient, unfussy Bhanumati. Quite unlike the heathen who wears shorts all the time, has a mischievous, criminal untrustworthy glint in her eye and walks straight up to his room whenever she wants like the besharam that she is.

But she cannot ignore the way her son’s pulse jumps whenever Subhadra walks in, smiling with just one corner of her mouth.

——— 

It matters to Duryodhan that his blind father is respected and not made fun of. Subhadra cannot understand why he is bothered about it…she can never imagine anyone mocking the lack of sight!

So every Sunday, Thursday and Friday, Subhadra reads to him from various volumes of Homer, Hardy, Tagore, and Tharoor. Dhritarashtra and she are quite thick now and he misses her whenever she cannot keep their arrangement.

Duryodhan listens by the study door as her expressive voice fills the packets of lifeless words with life.

Dussassan catches him like this once, and gestures that he is tearing up.

Dussassan is smacked.

———

Subhadra has frightening nightmares of death, chariot wheels, and loneliness. Duryodhan can understand the fear of death, he promises her that she will never be lonely but he cannot fathom the bit about chariot wheels.

Sometimes she gets hysterical, and the combined team of Balram, Krishna, Draupadi and Arjun are insufficient to comfort her.

Karna, and Yudhishtir are too overwhelmed by this, so they just hug her sincerely.

Duryodhan once asks her why chariot wheels scare her so much.

But how can she tell him that to her, chariot wheels are a sign of helplessness, and Subhadra loathes being helpless.

And she is terrorized by the thought of those she loves being helpless.

———

Duryodhan and Subhadra make a delightful little picture and Kunti loves that the two are inseparable.

She even hides their midnight escapades from Gandhari, and Rohini.

——-


End file.
